October 26, 2000

PORTLAND, MAINE — gofish.com, the company that provides various services and information to seafood buyers and producers, recently published an on-line article "Gaining Mussel" about mussels, the rising star of the seafood industry.

Writer James D. Wright suggests that the steady growth in worldwide mussel sales reveals "a revolution in popularity for this often-overlooked shellfish." To support that claim, he points out that the U.S. domestic aquaculture product [of mussels] has nearly doubled in the last eight years.

Terry Callery, sales manager of The Great Eastern Mussel Farms of Tenants Harbor, Maine, the largest mussel producer in the U.S., says that American consumers are just learning what most of the world already knows - that mussels are inexpensive, versatile and delicious. He says, "Mussels have grown beyond what has been an ethnic [Belgium, Latin and Asian countries] appeal and are now a mainstream item in U.S. supermarkets."

Also quoted in the article is James Anderson, a professor of environmental and natural resource economics at the University of Rhode Island and founder of Seafood Market Analyst. Anderson credits the industry's marketing efforts for mussels (predominantly initiated by Great Eastern) as a major reason for the popularity surge in mussel consumption.

The article from gofish.com goes on to say that Terry Callery lists the "Three Cs" as the greatest attributes of farm-raised mussels: consistency of quality, consistency of price and consistency of availability.

In addition to being featured in the article from gofish.com, Great Eastern Mussel Farms media coverage includes:

Great Eastern Mussel Farms was featured on Martha Stewart Living Television in April, 2000.

In addition, the company has been featured on a segment of Made in Maine on Maine Public Television.

And, the TV Food Network program Good Eats ("Mussel Bound") was broadcast in the fall of 2000.

Mussels have also been featured by Emeril Lagasse on the TV Food Network and Rebecca Reilly on New England Cooking.